Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a method, and a storage medium for controlling an operation of software based on a license.
Description of the Related Art
Methods for licensing commercial software include a node-locked method. Now, an activation flow according to the node-locked method will be described specifically. First, a user inputs a serial number, and transmits the input serial number together with identification information of software and device information of a computer to a licensing server. Next, the licensing server determines whether to be able to carry out license activation by comparing the information transmitted from the user with a database for managing a license. When the license activation is carried out by the licensing server, a license only usable on the above-described computer is issued. Further, the licensing server associates the above-described plurality of pieces of information used in the license activation with the serial number as license activation information, and manages them on the above-described database. This management with the serial number associated with the license activation information enables the node-locked method to prohibit another computer from using the serial number managed by the licensing server in association with the license activation information. Lastly, the computer acquires the license issued by the licensing server, and stores the acquired license into a database for storing the license in the computer. The software determines whether the license is stored, thereby determining whether to permit a startup of the software.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-138335 proposes a technique for returning the license to be stopped using when the software is uninstalled. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-138335 discusses the technique that detects whether there is the license for the software to be uninstalled and returns the license at the same time as the uninstallation if there is the license, when the software is uninstalled. According to this technique, the license stopped using is returned at the time of the uninstallation, whereby the pieces of information (the serial number, the identification information of the software, and the device information of the computer) associated with the license by the licensing server are released. As a result, the serial number released from the association with the license activation information becomes usable on another computer.